Sheeee’s baaack!

Wishing all my friends who celebrate, a very happy and safe Halloween. (Once upon a time, of course, you didn’t need to add “safe” to your greeting and it makes me infinitely sad that we do now.)

In spirit, I’ll be going with you door-to-door, pillowcase in hand trying to quell my insatiable craving for mini-Butterfingers.

PI users: if you’d like the UFO for Emily (figure only), just drop me a comment with a working email address. The font used here is Gorey, both on the headstone and a bit distorted for the greeting itself.

More Ghoulish Goodness on this site:
Vincent
The Zombielections Are Coming!
One for the Ghouls

Five Years and Four Months Later, A Homecoming

If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you’ll certainly have noticed the banner over there in the top right corner of my blog’s sidebar. Sargent Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas on June 25th, 2006, when he was a 19 year-old corporal on active duty in the IDF. In Israel army service is compulsory for all young men and women and their tour of service ranges from 18 months to 3 years, followed by a lengthy reserve duty.

Gilad was not in Gaza when Hamas kidnapped him, he was within Israel’s borders at a military base. The terrorists who took him wounded from his tank were members of Hamas’ military wing. The other 2 troops in Gilad’s tank, including his commander, died, 5 others were wounded in the attack. Over the five-year period of his captivity, there were no visits from the Red Cross to ensure that his humanitarian rights were upheld, no routine proof of life given.

Until now, all the efforts to secure Gilad’s release have failed. In exchange for his return this upcoming week, Israel has agreed to release more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, including some 450 terrorists who have directly caused the deaths of both Israelis and foreigners. They include Nasser Batima, jailed for planning a hotel bombing in Netanya during Passover in 2002 in which 30 Israelis were killed as well as Ahlam Tamimi, the Palestinian woman who drove the suicide bomber who attacked a Jerusalem pizza restaurant in 2001, killing 15 people. Also included on the list of those to be released are those who participated in the 2000 “lynching” in Ramallah of two Israeli reserve soldiers and those responsible for the abduction and murder of soldiers Nahshon Waxman, Avi Sasportas, Ilan Sa’adon and Shahar Simani.

There is not an Israeli who does not understand Aviva and Noam Shalit and the anguish they have suffered during their son’s 5-year captivity. And yet, while we rejoice with them in Gilad’s hopeful return, we cannot but wonder how long before someone else’s son or daughter becomes the next kidnap victim or the next victim of a terrorist act at the hands of one of those released in the exchange.

So while Hamas will be joyful and welcome their sons and daughters home with a hero’s welcome, Israelis will remain subdued. We have too much experience with the promises of terrorists to do otherwise.

Hoping that people and the media can give #giladshalit the space and time he needs to recover. Let him be #Gilad again before anything else.—
JenniferT (@wysiwygjt) October 12, 2011

Related:
News of Hamas-Israel prisoner deal met with apathy in Ramallah
Bereaved families petition High Court against Shalit deal

Update October 18, 2011:
09:10 – The news media have been talking non-stop since early this morning and as of now the pace has picked up to a frenzy. Still no sight of Gilad other than reports of his having been transferred to Egypt and the Rafiah border crossing. Celebrations in Ramallah, Um el Fahum and Gaza. Reports of calls for another kidnapping. Haniyeh confused why the world is celebrating the return of Shalit but not the Palestinian prisoners. East Jerusalem residents are demonstrating in the streets with Hamas flags.
09:30 – Two female terrorists, one mentioned above, have refused to leave the Red Cross bus so that they are not deported to Gaza.
09:45 – IDF confirms that Gilad has been transferred to Egypt.
09:55 – Thanks to the intervention of Egypt, one of the female terrorists will be deported directly to Egypt rather than Gaza. Not clear what is the fate of the 2nd female terrorist.
10:05 –  The prisoner exchange continues and you are invited to follow the developments on Ha’aretz’s Live Blog.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Sergeant First Class Gilad Shalit Enters Israel – ow.ly/70Ab9 #giladshalit—
IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) October 18, 2011

Can we get #GiladShalit to his home so we can get some good food in him. #JewishMothers—
Carol Warady (@carolw) October 18, 2011

AMEN! and later today, after so many, many days, my #giladshalit banner comes down.

Win7, Bamboo Touch and Corel Painter Essentials 4, Oh My!

This past summer, I had a wonderful visit abroad with family and friends (more on that another time) and came home with a new-ish computer free-of-charge. My previous 6 year-old computer was running WinXP and my biggest hesitation to upgrading to Win7 was losing the ability to run my beloved and familiar PhotoImpact8. I’ve never upgraded to a newer version and when Corel bought PI in 2007, they discontinued it in favor of their own graphics programs. (Surprise! Not!!)

Which brings me to the reason for this post. My old Graphire tablet obviously (obviously!) wasn’t going to make the transition to the new computer thanks to hardware changes, so when the Friday paper came with an ad for the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch with 3 free full-version graphics programs included, I dashed to the local computer shop with cash in hand. After spending a weekend installing and setting up the downloaded programs, it became apparent that Corel Painter Essentials 4 was the ugly duckling and refused to install and run correctly. Contacting the local Wacom distributor’s support was like putting my finger in a pencil sharpener and after 3 email exchanges with them (what can I say other than I’m stubborn and have a high tolerance for pain), it was clear I was on my own to solve this problem.

I finally found the answer to Painter Essentials 4 hangs on startup in Win7/64-bit in the reply given by Craig in a Windows7 Compatibility forum. Once I created the Color Profiles folder following Craig’s advice, the program successfully installed and I could update to v4.3, which is compatible with Win7. Putting this information out there will, hopefully, help other frustrated Corel customers.

So, what happened in the end with PI8, you might be asking? It’s here too, running in compatibility mode and (tfU! tFU! TFU!) so far, so good.

Made in PE4 and finessed in PI8

In Good Spirit

Courtesy of Sharkia on bandcamp.

A little Oud goes a long way and this is really wonderful stuff. Enjoy.

(via @YoavSegal on twitter.)